Recommended Reading

Newbery Medals with Teacher Notes

This list is copied from the Newbery Medal page of the American Library Association website. I have added my own notes in green about the titles I am familiar with, including genre and age level.

Purple means that it might be used in one of the grade levels.

* Means I recommend it

Symbols for genre:

YA: Young Adult

PB: Picture Book

HF: Historical Fiction

MS: Mystery/Suspense

FS: Fantasy/Sci-Fi

BI: Biography

GF: General Fiction

PO: Poetry

2006 Medal Winner: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins) – GF, Grades 5 and up

Honor Books:

• Whittington by Alan Armstrong, illustrated by S.D. Schindler (Random House)
• Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Scholastic)
• Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury Children's Books) – FS, Grades 5 and up
• *Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Hudson Talbott (G.P. Putnam's Sons) – PB, BI, Grades 2 and up

2005 Medal Winner: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster) – Grades 6 and up, GF

Honor Books:

• *Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko (G.P. Putnam's Sons/a division of Penguin Young Readers Group), Grades 4 and up, GF
• *The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights" by Russell Freedman (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin) – PB, Grades 3 and up
• Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin) 

*2004 Medal Winner: The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering, (Candlewick Press) - FS, Grades 4 and up

Honor Books:

• *Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow Books) – GF, Grades 4 and up
• An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy (Clarion Books)

2003 Medal Winner: Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (Hyperion Books for Children) – HF, Grades 4 and up

Honor Books:

• *The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (Atheneum) – FS, Grades 6 and up
• *Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff (Random House/Wendy Lamb Books) – Grades 5 and up, GF
• Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf) – Grades 4 and up, GF, funny
• A Corner of The Universe by Ann M. Martin (Scholastic)
• Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan (HarperCollins)

*2002 Medal Winner:   A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin) – Grades 5 and up, HF

Honor Books:

• Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath (Farrar Straus Giroux)
• Carver: A Life In Poems by Marilyn Nelson (Front Street)

2001 Medal Winner:   A Year Down Yonder by by Richard Peck (Dial) – GF, Grade 4 and up

Honor Books:

• Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
• *Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press) – Grade 4 and up, GF
• *Joey Pigza Loses Control by Jack Gantos (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux) – Grade 4 and up, GF
• *The Wanderer by Sharon Creech (Joanna Cotler Books/HarperCollins) – Grade 5 and up, GF

2000 Medal Winner:   *Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte) – GF, HF, Grades 4 and up

Honor Books:

• Getting Near to Baby by by Audrey Couloumbis (Putnam)
• Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm (HarperCollins)
• *26 Fairmount Avenue by Tomie dePaola (Putnam) – BI, Grade 3 and up

The 1990s

1999 Medal Winner: *Holes by Louis Sachar (Frances Foster) – GF, MS, Grades 4 and up

Honor Book:

• A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck (Dial) – GF, Grades 4 and up

1998 Medal Winner:    *Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Scholastic) – Grades 5 and up, HF, PO

Honor Books:

• Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (HarperCollins) – FS, Grades 4 and up
• *Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff (Delacorte) – HF, Grades 4 and up
• *Wringer by Jerry Spinelli (HarperCollins) – GF, Grades 5 and up

1997 Medal Winner:  The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg (Jean Karl/Atheneum) – GF, Grades 4 and up

Honor Books:

• A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer (Richard Jackson/Orchard Books)
• Moorchild by Eloise McGraw (Margaret McElderry/Simon & Schuster)
• The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow/Morrow)
• Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White (Farrar Straus Giroux)

1996 Medal Winner:   The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman (Clarion) – HF, Grades 6 and up

Honor Books:

• What Jamie Saw by Carolyn Coman (Front Street)
• *The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte) – HF, Grades 5 and up
• Yolonda's Genius by Carol Fenner (Margaret K. McElderry/Simon & Schuster)
• The Great Fire by Jim Murphy (Scholastic)

1995 Medal Winner:    *Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (HarperCollins), GF, Grades 5 and up

Honor Books:

• Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman (Clarion) – HF, Grades 6 and up
• *The Ear, the Eye and the Arm by Nancy Farmer (Jackson/Orchard) – FS, Grades 6 and up

1994 Medal Winner:  *The Giver by Lois Lowry (Houghton) – Grade 5 and up, FS

Honor Books:

• Crazy Lady by Jane Leslie Conly (HarperCollins)
• *Dragon's Gate by Laurence Yep (HarperCollins) – HF, Grades 6 and up
• Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman (Clarion Books)

1993 Medal Winner: *Missing May by Cynthia Rylant (Jackson/Orchard), GF, Grades 4 and up

Honor Books:

• What Hearts by Bruce Brooks (A Laura Geringer Book, a HarperCollins imprint)
• The Dark-thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural by Patricia McKissack (Knopf)
• Somewhere in the Darkness by Walter Dean Myers (Scholastic Hardcover)

1992 Medal Winner: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Atheneum)

Honor Books:

• Nothing But The Truth: a Documentary Novel by Avi (Jackson/Orchard)
• The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane by Russell Freedman (Holiday House)

1991 Medal Winner: *Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (Little, Brown), GF, Grades 4 and up

Honor Book:

• The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (Jackson/Orchard)

1990 Medal Winner: *Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Houghton) - HF, Grades 5 and up

Honor Books:

• Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle (Jackson/Orchard) – FS, Grades 4 and up
• Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples (Knopf)
• The Winter Room by Gary Paulsen (Jackson/Orchard)

The 1980s / Top of list

1989 Medal Winner: *Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman (Harper) – PO, Grade 5 and up

Honor Books:

• In The Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World by Virginia Hamilton (Harcourt)
• Scorpions by Walter Dean Myers (Harper)

1988 Medal Winner: *Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman (Clarion) – BI, Grades 5 and up

Honor Books:

• After The Rain by Norma Fox Mazer (Morrow) GF, Grades 6 and up
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (Bradbury) GF, Grades 5 and up

1987 Medal Winner: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow) – HF, Grades 4 and up

Honor Books:

• A Fine White Dust by Cynthia Rylant (Bradbury)
• *On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer (Clarion) – GF, Grades 4 and up
• Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens by Patricia Lauber (Bradbury)

1986 Medal Winner: *Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (Harper) – HF, Grades 3 and up

Honor Books:

• Commodore Perry In the Land of the Shogun by Rhoda Blumberg (Lothrop)
• Dogsong by Gary Paulsen (Bradbury)

1985 Medal Winner: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (Greenwillow)

Honor Books:

• Like Jake and Me by Mavis Jukes (Knopf)
• *The Moves Make the Man by Bruce Brooks (Harper) – GF, Grades 6 and up
• One-Eyed Cat by Paula Fox (Bradbury)

1984 Medal Winner: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary (Morrow) – GF, Grades 4 and up

Honor Books:

• The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
• A Solitary Blue by Cynthia Voigt (Atheneum)
• Sugaring Time by Kathryn Lasky (Macmillan)
• The Wish Giver: Three Tales of Coven Tree by Bill Brittain (Harper)

1983 Medal Winner: Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt (Atheneum)

Honor Books:

• The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley (Greenwillow)
• Doctor DeSoto by William Steig (Farrar)
• Graven Images by Paul Fleischman (Harper)
• Homesick: My Own Story by Jean Fritz (Putnam)
• Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush by Virginia Hamilton (Philomel)

1982 Medal Winner: A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard (Harcourt)

Honor Books:

• *Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary (Morrow) – GF, Grade 3 and up
• Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944 by Aranka Siegal (Farrar)

1981 Medal Winner: *Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (Crowell) – HF, Grades 6 and up

Honor Books:

• The Fledgling by Jane Langton (Harper)
• A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle (Farrar)

1980 Medal Winner: A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos (Scribner)

Honor Book:

• The Road from Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl by David Kherdian (Greenwillow)

The 1970s / Top of list

• 1979 Medal Winner: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (Dutton) – MS, Grades 5 and up
  Honor Book:
  • *The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson (Crowell) – GF, Grades 4 and up

• 1978 Medal Winner: *Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Crowell) – GF, Grades 4 and up
  Honor Books:
  • Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
  • Anpao: An American Indian Odyssey by Jamake Highwater (Lippincott)

• 1977 Medal Winner: *Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (Dial) – HF, Grades 6 and up
  Honor Books:
  • Abel's Island by William Steig (Farrar)
  • A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond (Atheneum)

• 1976 Medal Winner: *The Grey King by Susan Cooper (McElderry/Atheneum) – FS, Grades 5 and up
  Honor Books:
  • *The Hundred Penny Box by Sharon Bell Mathis (Viking) – GF, Grades 3 and up.
  • *Dragonwings by Laurence Yep (Harper) – HF, Grades 6 and up

• 1975 Medal Winner: M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton (Macmillan)
  Honor Books:
  • Figgs & Phantoms by Ellen Raskin (Dutton)
  • My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier & Christopher Collier (Four Winds)
  • The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope (Houghton)
  • Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe by Bette Greene (Dial)

• 1974 Medal Winner: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox (Bradbury)
  Honor Book:
  • *The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (McElderry/Atheneum) – FS, Grades 5 and up

• 1973 Medal Winner: *Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (Harper) – GF, Grades 6 and up
  Honor Books:
  • Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel (Harper)
  • The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss (Crowell)
  • The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Atheneum)

• 1972 Medal Winner: *Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (Atheneum) – FS, Grades 5 and up
  Honor Books:
  • *Incident At Hawk's Hill by Allan W. Eckert (Little, Brown) – GF, Grades 6 and up
  • The Planet of Junior Brown by Virginia Hamilton (Macmillan)
  • The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin (Atheneum)
  • Annie and the Old One by Miska Miles (Little, Brown)
  • The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Atheneum)

• 1971 Medal Winner: *Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars (Viking) – GF, Grades 5 and up
  Honor Books:
  • *Knee Knock Rise by Natalie Babbitt (Farrar) – FS, Grades 3 and up
  • Enchantress From the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl (Atheneum)
  • Sing Down the Moon by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)

• 1970 Medal Winner: Sounder by William H. Armstrong (Harper)
  Honor Books:
  • Our Eddie by Sulamith Ish-Kishor (Pantheon)
  • The Many Ways of Seeing: An Introduction to the Pleasures of Art by Janet Gaylord Moore (World)
  • Journey Outside by Mary Q. Steele (Viking)

The 1960s / Top of list

• 1969 Medal Winner: The High King by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)
  Honor Books:
  • To Be a Slave by Julius Lester (Dial)
  • When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Farrar)

• 1968 Medal Winner: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)
  Honor Books:
  • Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth by E. L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)
  • The Black Pearl by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
  • The Fearsome Inn by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Scribner)
  • The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Atheneum)

• 1967 Medal Winner: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt (Follett)
  Honor Books:
  • The King's Fifth by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
  • Zlateh The Goat and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Harper)
  • The Jazz Man by Mary Hays Weik (Atheneum)

• 1966 Medal Winner: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino (Farrar)
  Honor Books:
  • *The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander (Holt) – FS, Grades 4 and up
  • The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell (Pantheon)
  • The Noonday Friends by Mary Stolz (Harper)

• 1965 Medal Winner: Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska (Atheneum)
  Honor Book:
  • Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (Follett)